Anthony Benezet

Who was Anthony Benezet?

Anthony Benezet, born Antoine Bénézet, was a French-born American abolitionist and educator who was active in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the early American abolitionists, Benezet founded the first anti-slavery society of world's History, the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage; the first public school for girls in North America; and the Negro School at Philadelphia, which operated into the nineteenth century.